organization:united states army special forces

Marines seize an airfield and small island while testing tactics for fight against China
▻https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2019/03/21/marines-seize-an-airfield-and-small-island-alongside-special-opera

https://www.armytimes.com/resizer/U7Mn8OTIBDV2Wut5DfJbAyOuUwM=/1200x630/filters:quality(100)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/NM7YIJKJEBBRXESJLOOLXALMOI.jpg

Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU, seized a small island and airfield with elite special operations airmen and soldiers as part of a test of its future fighting concept.

That fighting concept, known as expeditionary advanced base operations, or EABO, will see Marines spread thinly across the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, operating from small bases — a tactic that will help Marines stay alive in a high-end fight with China.

EABO is still in the early stages of experimentation. The concept recently was signed off by Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller, but still awaits the signature of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson.

It’s a fight that will require assistance from the other services and the recent exercise that spanned March 11–14 included participation by U.S. Air Force 353rd Special Operations Group and soldiers with 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, according to details in a command release.
[…]
The exercise kicked off with the insertion of Marine reconnaissance via a military free-fall jump over Ie Shima Training Facility on Ie Jima Island, which is located off the coast of Okinawa, Japan, according to details in a command release.

Grunts with 1st Battalion, 4th Marines then carried out a long-range raid to seize the island’s airfield, moving nearly 600 miles by MV-22 Ospreys supported by KC-130 air refuelers, the command release detailed.

THE BATTLE OF DARAA IS HAPPENING : AL-RIDWAN, HEZBOLLAH’S SPECIAL FORCES WILL PARTICIPATE.
▻https://ejmagnier.com/2018/06/19/the-battle-of-daraa-is-happening-al-ridwan-hezbollahs-special-forces-will

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The Syrian command ignored the US and the Israeli requests to exclude Hezbollah and the Iranian allies from being present in Daraa. Thus, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asked Hezbollah al-Ridwan Special Forces to take positions in Daraa and around it to participate in the forthcoming attack.

Sources on the ground believe the US is not expected to pull out of al-Tanf crossing between Syria and Iraq – as requested by Damascus in exchange of Hezbollah and Iran absence in Daraa – because Israel believes the battle is not going to take place. Therefore, the Syrian government has decided to engage in the Daraa’ battle and remove all jihadists from the south to regain total control of the territory or even impose a negotiation by force to reached a withdrawal of the US forces from al-Tanf.

The Syrian Army is also aiming to end the southern battle so it can move all offensive forces to the north and al-Badiya afterwards, to attack the remaining ISIS forces present in that part of Syria.

The US faces a dilemma with thousands of trained, supported and funded Syrian proxies militias in the border area between Syria and Iraq. These militias can be a burden if the US decides to withdraw because they are Arab and non-Kurdish forces.

#Seymour_Hersh on spies, state secrets, and the stories he doesn’t tell - Columbia Journalism Review
▻https://www.cjr.org/special_report/seymour-hersh-monday-interview.php

https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/portrait_hersh_orange-800x419.jpg

Bob Woodward once said his worst source was Kissinger because he never told the truth. Who was your worst source?

Oh, I wouldn’t tell you.

Army Green Berets Secretly Help Saudis Combat Threat From Yemen Rebels - The New York Times

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/politics/green-berets-saudi-yemen-border-houthi.html

By Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt
May 3, 2018
WASHINGTON — For years, the American military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States.

But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America’s secret wars.

With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities.

Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to The New York Times by United States officials and European diplomats.
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They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that American military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing.

There is no indication that the American commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission.

But sending American ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen.

Beyond its years as a base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been convulsed by civil strife since 2014, when the Shiite Muslim rebels from the country’s north stormed the capital, Sana. The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, ousted the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Americans’ main counterterrorism partner in Yemen.

In 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing the Houthis, who have responded by firing missiles into the kingdom. Yet there is no evidence that the Houthis directly threaten the United States; they are an unsophisticated militant group with no operations outside Yemen and have not been classified by the American government as a terrorist group.

The Green Berets, the Army’s Special Forces, deployed to the border in December, weeks after a ballistic missile fired from Yemen sailed close to Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The Saudi military intercepted the missile over the city’s international airport, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed a longstanding request that the United States send troops to help the kingdom combat the Houthi threat.

Former CIA director laughs about election meddling by US - YouTube
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fBPV53v3xc

Via “RNN”
▻http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21203

Je vois passer ceci. Quelques reprises (dont Jerusalem Post), mais qui toutes se contentent de cette unique source. Avec de grosses pincettes donc… Jordan’s King arrests brothers and cousin in suspected Saudi-led coup | Al Sura English
▻http://al-sura.com/jordans-king-arrests-brothers-and-cousin-in-suspected-saudi-led-coup

King Abdullah spared no time in arresting both his brothers and cousin; Prince Faisal bin Hussein, Prince Ali bin Hussein and Prince Talal bin Muhammad after Jordanian intelligence services alerted the King that there was communication between the brothers and cousin and Saudi and Emirati leaders; Mohammad bin Salman and Mohammed bin Zayed. The shock house arrest of the King’s siblings comes as the Middle East faces a renewed ‘revolutionary’ movement in several countries. Leadership among the MENA states has looked towards Saudi Arabia for explanations for it’s belligerency towards the governments despite showing good working relations otherwise. Long standing allegiances with Qatar were seemingly thrown aside in moments when Saudi Arabia launched an economic blockade against long time ally Qatar. Many blame Saudi Arabia’s young Mohammad bin Salman for these poor choices in relations.

Sous couvert des 2000 personnels basés en Jordanie pour participer à la campagne contre Daesh, la CIA entraîne des combattants de l’opposition syrienne.

Army Special Forces soldiers killed in Jordan were working for the CIA
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/army-special-forces-soldiers-killed-in-jordan-were-working-for-the-cia/2016/11/11/8c6b53de-7b66-40ed-9077-bf954070f2be_story.html

The soldiers, identified as Staff Sgt. Matthew Lewellen, Staff Sgt. Kevin McEnroe and Staff Sgt. James Moriarty, were among roughly 2,000 U.S. troops working in Jordan while participating in the U.S.-led campaign fighting the Islamic State. Some of the troops have been assigned to mobile artillery units along the Jordanian border while others assist CIA-led training programs for Syrian opposition fighters.

The Ever-diminishing Dissonance of Being a Religious Soldier in Israel’s Secular Army - Books
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/books/.premium-1.739927

A timely question raised in the book is whether the religious community is plotting to take control of the army. Magal believes that some members of the community indeed wish for this, and many would like, for example, to see a religious chief of staff, but the author also lets the figures speak for him. According to the statistics he cites, 35 percent of the graduates of the Officers Training School (Bahad 1) are religiously observant (three times their proportion in the population), and almost a quarter of the soldiers from the settlement of Efrat, outside Bethlehem, enter an officers course. No fewer than 70 percent of those serving in the Maglan Special Forces unit are religious. Of the IDF’s five infantry brigades, Golani has the highest proportion of observant soldiers and officers, followed by Paratroops, Givati, Kfir and Nahal. It’s estimated that some 40 percent of the command staff in the Paratroops are religious.

The bottom line is clear and unequivocal: The religious-Zionist movement is exercising a decisive influence on the IDF. It’s unlikely that the case of the religious cadets, who were expelled from Bahad 1 in September 2011 because they left the auditorium when a female singer took the stage, will repeat itself in an era in which the commanders of officers training courses themselves are, in growing numbers, wearing kippas.

The rise of the religious community in the IDF was made possible in large measure by the fact that many members of Israel’s secular society began to ascribe less importance to military service than previously. The place of those who once proudly hoisted high the Zionist banner and achieved great things under it, is now being taken by those who view the Jewish people’s revitalization in the Land of Israel as part of fulfilling a divine imperative.

We watched RedTeam Security hack into a power company
▻http://www.techinsider.io/red-team-security-hacking-power-company-2016-4

RedTeam operates similar to a small military unit: Each team member brings different skill sets, and the team is smart and agile, easily adapting when situations change. After we meet and each team member talks about their specialty, I joke that they’re like a “Hacker version of the A-Team,” referencing the 1980s-era TV series about ex-Special Forces commandos who can solve a problem “if no one else can help.”

But unlike the action-packed show filled with explosions and gunfire, RedTeam tackles the problem of security in cyberspace. It’s become an increasingly dangerous place where criminals can initiate attacks on hospitals, militaries can affect outcomes on the battlefield, and nation-states can launch attacks that cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes.

#Hacking #Lock_picking #Pentest #RedTeam #Risque_(informatique) #Social_engineering #Supervisory_Control_and_Data_Acquisition #Sécurité_du_système_d’information #Sécurité_informatique #Test_d'intrusion

Investigation finds that Green Berets fought in Afghan city without proper maps - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/05/09/investigation-finds-that-green-berets-fought-in-afghan-city-without-proper-maps/?tid=sm_tw

The Army Special Forces unit that fought its way into the Afghan city of Kunduz after it was seized by the Taliban in October initially did so without proper maps, according to recently declassified documents.

The documents, released last month, were part of a heavily redacted report on the Oct. 3, 2015, bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed between 30 and 42 civilians. The investigation, aside from piecing together why an American AC-130U gunship targeted and destroyed a medical facility, revealed a host of issues that beset a small team of Army Special Forces soldiers and their Afghan counterparts as they pushed into a city held by a large Taliban force.

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#la_faute_aux_cartographes #cartographie #guerre @visionscarto

La guerre hybride est déclarée au Brésil, comme en Russie – Le Saker Francophone
▻http://lesakerfrancophone.fr/la-guerre-hybride-est-declaree-au-bresil-comme-en-russie

Par Pepe Escobar – Le 29 mars 2015 – Source Russia Today

Les révolutions de couleur ne seront jamais suffisantes ; L’Exceptionalistan est toujours à l’affût des mises à jour stratégiques majeures capables d’assurer l’hégémonie perpétuelle de l’Empire du Chaos.

#Brésil

Raqqa/Deïr az-Zor : avec les préparatifs pour la bataille de Mossoul la course à la prise du contrôle du territoire syrien sous contrôle de Da’ich entre des alliances concurrentes se met en place doucement, mais sûrement.

Selon Elijah Magnier, le régime et ses alliés ne lanceront pas la bataille sur Raqqa tant que la bataille de Mossoul ne sera pas lancée par les Américains et leurs alliés. D’abord parce que ce serait s’exposer à des déplacements de troupes de Da’ich d’Irak vers la Syrie, et ensuite parce que le principal danger reste al-Nousra qui dispose de soutiens extérieurs. En attendant cette bataille de Mossoul, ils se concentrent donc sur al-Nousra dans la province d’Idlib et essaient de se positionner pour reprendre 3 villes à Da’ich : Qaryatayn, Palmyre et Tabaqa
▻https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/the-raqqa-offensive-needs-mosul-first-and-the-iraqi-popular-mobi
The Raqqa offensive needs Mosul first and The Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Force to Syria

The Syrian “axis of resistance”, formed of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Lebanese “Hezbollah” Special Forces, Iraqi of the PMF, Pakistani and Afghan militias, all operating in Syria and backed by Russia, are preparing new military plans to advance on two main axes in the north of Syria: The first, in the northwest in Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib and rural areas of Aleppo to counter al-Qaeda in the Levant – Jahbat al Nusra and its allies. The second, is the attack against ISIS on three fronts: Qariyateyen, Palmyra, and Tabqa, without going too close to Raqqa. Both al-Qaeda and its Jihadist allies on one hand, and ISIS on the other, are not included in any cease-fire or deal related to a possible peace process or Cease-fire in Syria. While Russia and its allies prepare for their war in Syria, the U.S.A is gathering Iraqi forces and many American advisors around Mosul for the Iraqi J-Day.

La reprise de Qaryatayn et Palmyre (Tadmor), qui sont encore loin d’être faites, permettrait d’attaquer ensuite non seulement Raqqa par le sud mais aussi de briser le siège de Deïr az-Zor. Quant à Tabaqa, sa prise permettrait de couper Raqqa de toute la rive ouest du lac Assad et d’un accès à la Turquie au nord.

En tout cas, côté Irak, les préparatifs pour la bataille de Mossoul semblent se mettre en place. D’autant que le YPG a récemment progressé en prenant la ville de Shedadeh sur l’axe Hasakeh-Deïr az-Zor. Et les déclarations d’officiels américains sont assez ambigües pour laisser penser que la course vers Raqqa, au moins par l’Irak pour la coalition américaine, est lancée :
▻http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2016/02/battle-mosul-has-begun/126304
The Battle for Mosul Has Begun

“We are focused on eliminating the enemy in Raqqa every single day. We’re doing airstrikes there constantly,” McGurk said. “We know more now than we ever did before, and we’re beginning to constrict [the coalition’s] hold on Raqqa.”
Carter called Shadadi “a critical node for ISIL training and logistics, as well as for its oil enterprise. As our partners take control of Shadadi, I believe we will learn a great deal more about ISIL’s criminal networks, its criminal enterprise, and what it does to sustain them.”
McGurk said the Mosul push will be guided from a new joint operations center in Makhmur, southwest of the Kurdish capital of Irbil. The coalition also has forces in Sinjar, Hit, and al-Assad Air Base to the south, a key special operations launching point which has remained under U.S. and Iraqi control.
“Because of our strategy and our determination to accelerate our campaign, momentum is now on our side and not on ISIL’s,” Carter said.

Al-Monitor s’intéresse lui aussi au sujet :
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/syria-regime-advance-raqqa.html#ixzz41f6V3BGR
Is Syrian regime about to retake Raqqa ?

Regarding the next steps, the same leader in Athriya said, “Our operations will continue along the Athriya-Raqqa axis, and our forces will secure the road from Athriya to Khanasir. The Russian air force will protect the two forces [on the Athriya-Khanasir and Athriya-Raqqa axes] against any attacks that might risk us losing the regions we retook.” The Syrian regime managed to regain control over the town of Khanasir on Feb. 25.
Abdel Rahman Daoud, a political analyst close to the Syrian regime, told Al-Monitor, “The Syrian army will stand its ground in the Raqqa battle because regaining the province is an important step to eliminate the danger of division, and because the Russian leadership wants to block the way to any US attempt to control IS’ main stronghold amid the public field race between Russia and the United States.”
The Raqqa battle is still relatively far away if we look at it from the perspective of distances that the Syrian army would have to cross. But from an ambitious perspective, it has become imminent. IS has blocked the road the Syrian regime would need to cross to reach the north of the country. This might make the regime’s ambitions harder to fulfill.

America’s secret arsenal
▻http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/12/defense-department-cyber-offense-strategy-000331

.... the extent of American meddling in malware is still unknown. But for the past few years there’s been something new developing within the U.S. military that has taken “cyber” from a theoretical idea to a deliberate—if secretive—part of U.S. policy. The first ripple came in January 2013, when the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was significantly expanding its cybersecurity forces across all the service branches. By that October, the U.S. Army had launched two teams of technical experts dedicated purely to the cyber realm. Just a year later, the number was up to 10.

The growth has been snowballing. Last year, the secretary of the Army created a new branch for #cyber —the first new Army branch since Special Forces was created in 1987. By October of this year, there were 32 teams, coordinated out of a new joint force headquarters for cyber opened last year in Fort Gordon, Georgia. By next summer, the Army expects to have 41.

5月17日のツイート
▻http://twilog.org/ChikuwaQ/date-150517

Papier is out! paper.li/ChikuwaQ/13277… Stories via @OUPPhilosophy @minerin999 @michikokakutani posted at 09:15:19

Top story: Michel Serres : “Ce n’est pas avec la trouille qu’on invente” - leJD… www.lejdd.fr/Societe/Michel…, see more tweetedtimes.com/ChikuwaQ?s=tnp posted at 08:58:47

Top story: Abu Sayyaf, an ISIS Leader, Killed by Special Forces, U.S. Says www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/wor…, see more tweetedtimes.com/ChikuwaQ?s=tnp posted at 04:08:22

Forces spéciales de l’oligarchie étasunienne
▻http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2015/04/socom-2015

U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) consist of over 69,000 operators and support personnel deployed to more than 80 countries around the world, the SOCOM posture statement said (compared to “over 75 countries” in last year’s statement). They include Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Air Commandos, Rangers, Night Stalker helicopter crews, Marine Raiders, and others.

#Afghanistan : ‘A Shocking Indictment’
Rory Stewart NOVEMBER 6, 2014 ISSUE
▻http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/06/afghanistan-shocking-indictment

Mille milliards USD, pour quoi (en fait pour qui) ?

Gopal, a Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor reporter, investigates, for example, a US counterterrorist operation in January 2002. US Central Command in Tampa, Florida, had identified two sites as likely “al-Qaeda compounds.” It sent in a Special Forces team by helicopter; the commander, Master Sergeant Anthony Pryor, was attacked by an unknown assailant, broke his neck as they fought and then killed him with his pistol; he used his weapon to shoot further adversaries, seized prisoners, and flew out again, like a Hollywood hero.

As Gopal explains, however, the American team did not attack al-Qaeda or even the Taliban. They attacked the offices of two district governors, both of whom were opponents of the Taliban. They shot the guards, handcuffed one district governor in his bed and executed him, scooped up twenty-six prisoners, sent in AC-130 gunships to blow up most of what remained, and left a calling card behind in the wreckage saying “Have a nice day. From Damage, Inc.” Weeks later, having tortured the prisoners, they released them with apologies. It turned out in this case, as in hundreds of others, that an Afghan “ally” had falsely informed the US that his rivals were Taliban in order to have them eliminated. (...) Gopal then finds the interview that the US Special Forces commander gave a year and a half later in which he celebrated the derring-do, and recorded that seven of his team were awarded bronze stars, and that he himself received a silver star for gallantry.

(...)

Gopal’s investigations into development are no more encouraging. I—like thousands of Western politicians—have often repeated the mantra that there are four million more children, and 1.5 million more girls, in school than there were under the Taliban. Gopal, however, quotes an Afghan report that in 2012, “of the 4,000 teachers currently on the payroll in Ghor, perhaps 3,200 have no qualifications—some cannot read and write…80 percent of the 740 schools in the province are not operating at all.” And Ghor is one of the least “Taliban-threatened” provinces of Afghanistan.

(...)

Why didn’t I—didn’t most of us—know these details? The answer is, in part, that such investigative journalism is very rare in Afghanistan. Gopal’s work owes a lot to other researchers. He is building on the work of Sarah Chayes and Alex Strick van Linschoten (both of whom immersed themselves in the Pushtu south), of exceptional journalists such as Carlotta Gall and David Rohde of The New York Times, of officials with years in the country such as Eckart Schiewek, Robert Kluijver, and Michael Semple, and of Afghan journalists such as Mohammed Hassan Hakimi.

(...)

But his real genius lies in binding all these sources together and combining them with thousands of hours of interviews

(...)

Sur les #Dostum et ses pareils,

No one reading Gopal would be tempted to joke about these men again, or present them simply as “traditional power-brokers” and “necessary evils.”

#Etats-Unis #leadership « #nos_valeurs » "#monde_libre" #propagande #propagandistes #violence #mort #malheur

Islamists overrun army base in #Benghazi
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/islamists-overrun-army-base-benghazi

Islamist fighters and militants overran a major Libyan army base in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday after a fierce battle involving rockets and warplanes in which at least 30 people were killed. Special forces troops had to abandon their main camp in southeast Benghazi after coming under sustained attack from a coalition of Islamist fighters and militias, military officials and residents said. “We have withdrawn from the army base after heavy shelling,” Saiqa Special Forces official Fadel Al-Hassi told Reuters. read more

#Libya

Deux types d’information :

– Très gravement amputée, qui peut laisser croire que le régime étasunien s’apprête à se calmer,

Aux Etats-Unis, l’armée de terre va être sévèrement réduite
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/02/24/l-armee-de-terre-americaine-ramenee-a-son-plus-bas-niveau-depuis-1940_437269

USA : le Pentagone veut sabrer les effectifs de l’armée de Terre
▻http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_usa-le-pentagone-veut-sabrer-les-effectifs-de-l-armee-de-terre?id=820934

La plus petite armée de Terre américaine depuis 1940
▻http://www.lapresse.ca/international/etats-unis/201402/24/01-4741991-la-plus-petite-armee-de-terre-americaine-depuis-1940.php

– non amputée,

Hagel Urges Less Money for U.S. Army, More for Special Forces
▻http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/hagel-urges-less-funding-u-s-army-special-forces

(...)

At the same time, however, he urged an increase in the size of the Special Operations Forces (SOF), the elite military personnel charged with training foreign counterparts and carrying out often-secret missions, including assassinations and raids such as the one that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

(...)

“The real question is whether we can roll back the ‘go anywhere, fight any battle’ mentality of the Pentagon,” Hartung [said] in an email exchange. “Whether it’s drones, Special Forces, or precision bombs, war is war, and it’s time to take the United States off of a perpetual war footing and craft a truly defensive military force.”

Indeed, in his remarks, Hagel stressed that Washington’s SOF will continue to grow – from roughly 66,000 today to just shy of 70,000 in 2015 – an increase of almost 300 percent compared to just a decade ago.

Each of the military services and each of the regional commands (SouthCom for Latin America, Africom for Africa, CentCom for the Near East and parts of South and Central Asia, and PaCom for the Asia-Pacific) – have their own elite SOF units.

In addition, a North Carolina-based Special Operations Command (SOCOM), presided over by Adm. William McRaven, who oversaw the bin Laden raid, can dispatch troops to virtually anywhere in the world. He also commands the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), which works closely with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in carrying out highly classified operations against specific targets.

McRaven, whose efforts at easing human-rights restrictions on training foreign militaries and circumventing State Department oversight of some aid programmes have proved controversial, has nonetheless been effective in building his “empire” in major part because of its compatibility with Obama’s desire to lighten the U.S. military’s “footprint” in conflicted regions without reducing its effectiveness and lethality.

“In his State of the Union address, the President declared that our nation must move off a permanent war footing, and Secretary Hagel’s speech today took one major step in that direction.” noted Miriam Pemberton, another defence analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies here. “But, while long-term occupations are off the table now, the expansion of Special Forces means that under-the-radar invasion are not .”

Ironically, Hagel’s budget proposal reflects in many ways the strategic vision of former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld , who strongly favoured the development of high-tech combat systems, heavy reliance on air power, and small, nimble ground forces who could strike from so-called “lily pads” (or temporary bases) anywhere on the globe within a short period of time. His so-called “Revolution in Military Affairs,” or RMA, however, was side-tracked enormous costs of the Iraq occupation.

The Obama administration has revived that vision, without explicitly admitting it, with the priority it has accorded to cyber-warfare capabilities, SOF, ever-more sophisticated drone technology, its intended retention of all 13 aircraft carriers, and its ongoing efforts to negotiate access agreements to foreign military facilities, particularly in the Asia-Pacific, East African, and Sahelian regions

Brown Moses Blog: Special Report On Hezbollah’s Role In The Yabrud Offensive
▻http://brown-moses.blogspot.com/2014/02/special-report-on-hezbollahs-role-in.html

“The battle of Qalamoun will be run differently from the one of Qusayr: Far more intensive fire power to reduce loses and inflict more damage to the rebels. We shall block entry to the city and villages from all access and directions. The advance of the Special Forces (SF) will progress from six different axes to separate the rebel lines and isolate them into smaller groups.” explained the source.

He pointed out “Hezbollah SF who have participated in the battle of East Ghota, Idlib and Qusayr have been deployed in the battle with their experience and full equipment, including their special Burkan (Volcano) to open the road.”

Top 10 warning signs of ’liberal imperialism’ - by Stephen M. Walt | Stephen M. Walt
▻http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/05/20/top_ten_warning_signs_of_liberal_imperialism

#1: You frequently find yourself advocating that the United States send troops, drones, weapons, Special Forces, or combat air patrols to some country that you have never visited, whose language(s) you don’t speak, and that you never paid much attention to until bad things started happening there.

#2: ...

#3: You think globally and speak, um, globally. You are quick to condemn human rights violations by other governments, but American abuses (e.g., torture, rendition, targeted assassinations, Guantánamo, etc.) and those of America’s allies get a pass. You worry privately (and correctly) that aiming your critique homeward might get in the way of a future job.

#4: You are a strong proponent of international law, except when it gets in the way of Doing the Right Thing. Then you emphasize its limitations and explain why the United States doesn’t need to be bound by it in this case.

#5: You belong to the respectful chorus of those who publicly praise the service of anyone in the U.S. military, but you would probably discourage your own progeny from pursuing a military career.

#6. Even if you don’t know very much about military history, logistics, or modern military operations, you are still convinced that military power can achieve complex political objectives at relatively low cost.

#7: To your credit, you have powerful sympathies for anyone opposing a tyrant. Unfortunately, you tend not to ask whether rebels, exiles, and other anti-regime forces are trying to enlist your support by telling you what they think you want to hear. (Two words: Ahmed Chalabi.)

...

Neuroscience, Special Forces and Yale
▻http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/03/06/neuroscience-special-forces-and-yale

Last month, a proposal to establish a U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Center for Excellence in Operational Neuroscience at Yale University died a not-so-quiet death. The broad goal of “operational neuroscience” is to use research on the human brain and nervous system to protect and give tactical advantage to U.S. warfighters in the field. Crucial questions remain unanswered about the proposed center’s mission and the unusual circumstances surrounding its demise. But just as importantly, this episode brings much needed attention to the morally fraught and murky terrain where partnerships between university researchers and national security agencies lie.

#neuroscience #recherche #armée

Going Rogue: America’s Unconventional Warfare in the Mideast
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/sandbox/going-rogue-americas-unconventional-warfare-mideast

The intent of U.S. [Unconventional Warfare] UW efforts is to exploit a hostile power’s political, military, economic, and psychological vulnerabilities by developing and sustaining resistance forces to accomplish U.S. strategic objectives…For the foreseeable future, U.S. forces will predominantly engage in irregular warfare (IW) operations.

So begins the 2010 Unconventional Warfare (UW) Manual of the US Military’s Special Forces. The manual attached here (TC 18-01) is an interim publication, developed to address the definition of Unconventional Warfare and some other inconsistencies in UW Doctrine. The new UW document (ATP 3-05.1) is in the initial draft and not yet available, though sources tell me it is unlikely to differ much from TC 18-01.

http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/P_19_Diagram.jpg http://english.al-akhbar.com/sites/default/files/P_14_Diagram.jpg

08BEIRUT459 - Lebanon : Defmin Murr On Transforming The Laf To Support Ct Operations, Unscr 1701, Camps - 3 avril 2008 #cablegate
►http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/04/08BEIRUT459.html

Elias Murr dans ses œuvres.

Ici, il explique sa vision de l’armée libanaise : clairement il ne s’agit pas d’une armée de défense, mais uniquement d’une force spéciale de lutte contre le terrorisme.

Murr was firm when he said, “we don’t need this heavy army that was trained and equipped by the U.S. in 1983. Things have changed since 9/11 and we need to rely more on special forces and fewer heavy brigades. We need light and medium weapons and attack helicopters to back up the grond troops.” Murr surmises that he needs 10-15,000 Special Forces troops organized in 10-15 Special Forces regiments supported by 20-25,000 conventional troops. He thinks that the army’s current end strength of 60,000 is too large for the missions assigned.

Pour lutter contre le terrorisme, une vision rigoureusement confessionnelle de l’armée libanaise. Donc : pour Murr, beaucoup plus de chrétiens.

In a somewhat odd exchange, Murr explained that he wanted to increase the number of Christians in the army by recruiting them for SF units. Citing their reliability, trustworthiness and eagerness to apply for SF, Murr (a Greek Orthodox) told us that Christians are ideal for the mission. Noticing some inquisitive looks from his guests, Murr moved to explain why he needs to focus on recruiting Christians.

Et beaucoup moins de chiites (qui représenteraient une « menace » pour l’armée libanaise) :

Murr told us that his recruitment efforts over the last two years have netted 20,000 new troops for the Army at the same time that many draftees have been leaving the army. When this process began, the Shia accounted for 58% of the enlisted force; now they comprise 25% of the enlisted ranks. At the same time, Murr has been able to bring the Christians to 25% and the Sunni/Druze component to 50% of the enlisted ranks. Murr assesses that the Shia no longer “pose a threat” to the LAF, even if Nasrallah were to call on them to leave the army.

Mais bon, c’est une vision du monde toute bushiste qui est à l’œuvre ici :

According to Murr, “when you want to fight terrorists, you are fighting Sunni and Shia; you need Christians in special forces to do this mission. If you maximize Christians, you will have the best results.”